When Does Sculpture Combine Itself with Jewelry?

3:47 AM

In today's growing market of high-end consumerism, two fields of modernity are steadily rising i...

In today's growing market of high-end consumerism, two fields of modernity are steadily rising in the Asian community. Both contemporary jewelry and modern sculpture are drawing closer and closer to each other's boundaries. I've seen gold rings in twin sheet squares holding up diamonds positioned to show angles never before seen in traditional smithing. I've seen a clear glass sculpture that created a scaled resemblance to a wedding band topped with a sapphire shard. There are actually many craft pieces out there that are comparable to these two examples or better. In the modern collector's mind, art pieces derive their value because of their creative originality and valued style. Jewelry pieces are stereotyped by their media, detailed accuracy and overall brilliance. This decade holds an important hybridity for these two fields because of the looming hybridity that is slowly pulling them together. Consumer and collector trends are slowly changing to accept the randomness of abstraction in jewelry. People are starting to be attracted to what is different from the norms of everyday life. It used to be a desire to fit in, but now the motive behind fine jewelry is the ability to stand out. Art can create this ability.

For every original piece that comes to the mind of a designer, only a few will make their way into the real world. It is just like a friend told me many years back, 1 out of 100 new ideas by 100 different people- this is the number of concepts that make their way into reality on average daily. Despite being outnumbered for quite a while, the novel discoveries, the new ideas, the innovative modernizations are now numbering in the thousands. It took a while for them to amass, but the tides are turning in favor of innovation and hybridity. Will people just watch and let the movements of society drag them around, or will the adapt, create and shape a new face for themselves in the coming world of luxury consumerism?

Kylo Chua is a Chinese sculptor whose works focus on the elegant abstraction of natural subjects. His works are exhibited year-round in the Philippines at primary exhibitions like those held by the Artasia Fine Arts Gallery.